Karaoke Wishlist: May 2007

1. Ne-Yo - "Because Of You" Ne-Yo clearly wants to convince the world that he's the heir to Michael Jackson, and after listening to Because Of You non-stop for two weeks, I'm at least willing to hear him out on that point. While it's obviously not up there with Thriller (or even Off The Wall), it's one of the best R&B albums in a long while, and it'll go about five singles deep before the year is over. "Leaving Tonight," the accusatory back-and-forth with Jennifer Hudson, is probably going to be the big karaoke hit, but "Because Of You" is as good sing-along as you can get, especially with that multi-layered bridge.
2. Klaxons, "Golden Scans" Is it "Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-aaaaah" or "Doo-doo-doo-doo-dooh, doo-doo-doo-doo-haaaaa"?
3. The Wildhearts - "The New Flesh" I've given up all hope that this long-running British-rock troupe will ever make it here in the U.S.; hard-rock fans nowadays are more interested in neo-grunge leg-press anthems than they are in fast, hooky, cartoonish metal. "The New Flesh" is the second single from the 'Hearts self-titled new album, and it sounds like the Mutt Lange house band covering "We Didn't Start The Fire."
4. Beyoncé - "World Wide Woman" This bonus B'day track got no love from commenters when we posted it on Idolator, possibly because there are few things cornier than a love song about computers. But I love the "double-you/double-you/double-you" chorus—and as as far as Internet-related jams go, I've heard much worse.
5. Devin The Dude ft. Snoop Dogg & Andre 3000 - "What A Job" I can't even pretend to pull off more than a few hip-hop songs at karaoke (though I can fake my way through "Fight The Power"and "The Humpty Dance"), but considering that the Dude speak-sings his verses, this could work. It would require some stellar guest-work, though.